Light At The End of The Tunnel
by littleassbutt
Summary: Dean leaves his friends to talk to Castiel, a man he just met who claims to be with the FBI. Suspicious, Dean goes with Cas and finds himself being asked questions that he no longer knows the answer to.


September had begun and summer had come to its end, still, Dean decided to make one last trip to the beach, hoping to catch his friend Benny who was one of the life guards.

But today the air was cold and the promise of rain hung in the air. Dean made his way down the steep slope from the car park and onto the beach. Sam, Charlie and Kevin trailed behind him, talking about game of thrones with towels slung over their shoulders, Dean hugged his towel tighter as the wind blew in their direction and turned his face as it blew some sand up in their general direction.

"Ah man, right in my eye." Charlie groaned, she had a tendency to forget her sunglasses which resulted in this happening often.

"Why don't you ever bring any sunglasses?" Sam mirrored Dean's thoughts.

"I don't have any, I had a decent pair once but they got sat on and have you seen girls' sunglasses? It's pretty hard to get some normal looking ones for a cheap price. I might just buy some guy's sunglasses; they're cheaper and not as showy."

Dean smirked at this, it was a typical conversation with Charlie, and she was right, not to mention men's products are more durable.

After scanning the beach Dean came to the conclusion that Benny had taken the day off, which he did more than he should, and waded into the water, wondering who had taken over his shift this time. Maybe it was Lisa, Dean hoped but there didn't appear to be anyone keeping watch.

Other people had noticed this which caused them to be cautious, parents took the hands of their children and the surfers were staying closer to the shore than usual but continued to show off in front of girls who passed by.

The four of them sat on the sand for the time being, sharing some fries that Kevin had bought and talking about work. Dean worked as a cop and Sam, his little brother, had gone to Stanford to study law a couple years back. Charlie worked in IT for some big corporation and spent her time off to geek out and Kevin was going into college sometime this month.

"Actually, I'm gonna go travelling soon with Dorothy."

"Who's Dorothy?" Dean smiled and raised an eyebrow at Charlie who he'd started to listen to in mid-sentence.

Charlie grinned. "Just this girl I've been seeing, we're both massive dorks and we just sort of clicked."

"Good for you." Sam nodded to her, dipping his fry into a dollop of ketchup.

"Dean." A voice interjected from across the beach, Dean thought he'd imagined it but the others looked around to see who was calling their friends name.

A dark haired guy, not much smaller than Dean, walked into sight, sand blowing up around him. Dean didn't recognise this man, maybe he was a friend of Benny's and was taking over his shift Dean thought before seeing his attire which suggested the complete opposite. He was wearing a tan trench coat over a suit and blue tie.

Dean looked around to check if the man was calling to someone who shared his name but his blue eyes stared right at Dean who looked away from his icy gaze.

The guy stopped a few metres away from them, as if expecting Dean to come to him. Sam pulled a turtle face and turned back to the chips, chatting to Kevin, signalling that Dean should go and see the man.

Dean stood, scraping sand onto the towel and traipsed over to the stranger. "Should I know you?" He asked when out of the others' earshot.

The man looked at Dean with these longing eyes, maybe Dean did know this guy. "Oh, um. I was at one of the cases you were working at a while back."

"Huh. Which one?" Dean furrowed his brows.

He stopped for a second before answering "The two students who were found in the woods."

"Ah, with their eyes all… burnt out?" Dean remembered the bodies with a shudder; it was suspected they were alive in that state for a couple hours.

"Yes." He fumbled in his pockets before pulling out an FBI badge that was slightly worn around the edges and had slid part way out of the wallet he kept it in. Dean leaned in to read the print, making sure it was real. It was.

"Oh, I didn't realize you were with the FBI."

The man spoke, his eyes now off of Dean and on the others who were watching. "Could I speak to you somewhere more… private?"

Dean turned to look at Sam and held up five fingers. Five minutes. Sam nodded and Dean turned to walk with Castiel. He'd read his name on the badge.

Castiel walked ahead of him, leading Dean to an empty part of the beach. When he stopped he turned back to face Dean, his face no longer completely expressionless. He looked suddenly angry but his eyes were not on Dean.

Dean was aware of something sliding out of Castiel's sleeve and then a hand on his back.


End file.
